When I was a little girl, my mother had a stained blue book in her kitchen called The Joy of Cooking. If you don’t have a copy in your kitchen, I’d be surprised. At least you’ve heard of it, seen it, maybe leafed through it. I have my own copy. It’s white (or it was at one point), a later edition, and certain pages look centuries older than the publish date would indicate. My mother referred to the cookbook as “Irma” instead of by its title. Irma Rombauer, the creator and writer of all 915 pages of foolproof recipes, was the gal who taught me that one person’s chore can be another’s joy.
Writing has been a joy for me all my life. From the little poems I’d create in bed at night as I fought sleep, to the stories I spent much of my life writing. But also academic papers, articles, blogs, letters, whatever it might be. But one day I thought, why stop there? Why not offer my skills to others? Can’t what I do so happily, easily, and well become a resource for people who are experts in their fields, who have a lot to say, but maybe are not writers themselves?
Some people can fix their own plumbing. They get it. It makes sense to them, and they never need to hire a professional. Or they can change the oil in their cars. Or they can create their own websites, paint their own houses, or make the perfect latte.
But if you’re like me, I take my car to the garage, have my plumber’s number at the ready on my phone, and go to the local coffee spot that can steam milk to microfoam perfection. When the plumber’s house needs a new paint job, he’ll call a housepainter. But when he needs someone to write or edit copy for his brand new website, he calls me. That’s when I put my superhero cloak on and have at it.
Like Irma, I offer you, potentially, hundreds of pages of joy—mine because I love doing this work for you, and yours, because you don’t have to.
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